The main four unions organising across Transport for London - RMT, Aslef, TSSA, and Unite - held a joint rally against cuts, via Zoom, on 15 July.
Officials from all unions spoke in favour of industrial action to resist cuts, albeit with varying degrees of emphasis and enthusiasm. Exactly how to build that action, what forms of action will be most effective, and, crucially, what its demands should be must now be discussed in workplaces and via union branches across the job.
A cross-union public campaign on this issue has to take a clear stance against any and all frontline cuts, including redundancies, whether "voluntary" or "compulsory". The campaign should also articulate its own positive programme for TfL funding and governance, arguing for things like cuts to the senior management pay, and for ring-fenced taxation of big business in London to fund public transport.
At this early stage of the campaign, the very fact of the rally, the first time all four unions have formally collaborated on any public activity, was perhaps more significant than the contents. It was, however, unfortunate that there was only one rank-and-file transport worker on the platform; future events must make voices from the workplace, including from outsourced workers, much more prominent.
